The New Beginning
by Mclovesyou
Summary: Dimitri is a Strigoi. When a group of Strigoi invade the academy, they take 6 Moroi, including Lissa. Rose is deteremined to find her while Dimitri makes it impossible for her. Can Rose save Lissa? Full summary inside!
1. Chapter 1

The New Beginning

Hey. This is my first V.A Fanfic, and it is pretty small.

Description- Dimitri and Rose had just faced off a pack of strigoi in the caves. Dimitri had been bitten and 'died'. Rose returns to the academy with half her soul and heart aching for Dimitri, the man she loved. Lissa was the only person who knew about their relationship and learnt to accept it. Lissa and Christian are still together and in love. Adrian is also still at the academy learning more about spirit with Lissa. But what happens when Lissa gets captured by the one and only, Dimitri Belikov as a strigoi? Can Rose save Lissa in the end? This is a short story…Enjoy!

Chapter 1

"Dimitri…" I ran my fingers along the side of his pale face. Tears were escaping my eyes as they silently fell onto his lifeless body underneath me. He had been bitten by a strigoi before Icould savehim. I had my other hand around his body as I slowly let go of the face I love. I rested my head on his chest for one more time as I closed my eyes for just a moment.

It turned out I had actually fallen asleep on his cold body but by the time I had woken, he was gone. The cave was gone. I was back at the academy, in the med clinic. Was the strigoi attack a dream? Was Dimitri's death a dream? Or had I just-

"Rose!" Lissa interrupted me with her concerned voice, confirming that what had just happened, _had _happened. The picture of his cold, dead face was all I saw with deep black darkness covering the rest of my vision. Until Lissa grabbed my hand. The vision left and I saw the med clinic, Lissa and Dr. Olendzki. I had wanted to see one more person staring down at me, but I know I will never see him again.

"Rose we were so scared. We couldn't find you. Then we did. And we found you alone. What were you-" I cut her off with my hand tightening. "Are you OK?" She asked instantly. "I was…alone?" I asked shakily. "In the cave…?" I continued. Lissa nodded her head. "But…Dimitri…he was there…" I whispered to myself but Lissa had still managed to hear.

"Rose, you were lying down, asleep, unconscious even, and you were alone. Dimitri, he's…missing, suspected to be, well…dead." Lissa continued looking into my eyes, but I had to look away. And so I did. I looked off to the left of the room where there was a window into the waiting room. There were blinds covering up my room but I'd occasionally see people standing out near them. I'd always noticed that. And for a second, I saw Dimitri's shadow lurking behind them.

I shut my eyes for 2 seconds then looked back to the window. He was gone. I blinked back a few tears and then looked back up at Lissa. She looked scared and worried. Dr. Olendzki looked like her usual self around me since I was here a lot. "Rose, when we found you, we tried taking you and well…you kept on sobbing and saying Dimitri's name. What happened in the cave? What happened to Dimitri?" She asked me.

"To be honest, I don't even know what happened down there. Except…there were strigoi…and Dimitri, he…he was bitten." I paused for a few seconds in between the sentence. I also had trouble hiding my tears back. My heart ached for the man I loved. He was gone, his life over in one night, one strigoi bite, one failing Rose Hathaway. He died because of me.

Dr. Olendzki's phone went off and she departed the room. "Rose…I…I don't know what to say…" Lissa still held my hand in hers in a comforting, friendly way. I loved her for it. "Rose, you can cry, it's OK to cry when you lose someone you love." Lissa's words were filled with sorrow and regret. Sorrow I understood but regret? I couldn't pull my head around regret.

And for the first time since we'd gotten back to the academy, I cried. Tears spilling out of my eyes as my heart was in constant pain. I cried myself to sleep that night in my dorm. I kept on reliving his death, over and over in my head.

We were running out as fast as we could. And again, I had thanked Dimitri for making me run laps. The Strigoi were fast but we were getting away. I had remembered taking a trip into the cave a few years ago and had remembered this path we ran on. There was a corner then the entrance was not far from it. We had made it, we had really-

A Strigoi grabbed a hold of me and threw me to the ground. I was used to this and so I jumped back up ready to fight, but as I had suspected, Dimitri was already in full fight mode attacking the Strigoi. I couldn't just stand back and watch so I jumped into the fight coming from the side. Dimitri was the one to push me away. "Run! Get out of here! Roza run!" He had used my nickname. I looked straight into his eyes for just a few seconds and began to run. I loved him, and it hurt me running away and not helping him.

As I reached the corner, I turned back, and began running back to Dimitri. I couldn't run from him. If it was only one strigoi, it shouldn't be too hard for him to defeat. But we had already been in a fight for most of the afternoon and night was creeping over us. Soon there could be more Strigoi attacking him, and I couldn't let him die. I couldn't let them take him.

When I took in the surroundings. I stopped running. I froze. I stood for half a second realising the Strigoi was coming right to me. I grabbed my stake out of my jacket and started running towards it. We had both stopped, having about a meter in between us. He had knocked out Dimitri. This Strigoi was going to pay. With all my anger I jumped right on him, not thinking about how I was going to kill him yet.

My stake was in my right hand and so as I jumped on the Strigoi, he faltered back as I jumped off him and threw my body weight into a kick that had made him stagger for only a second. That was my opportunity to stake him. And so I did. I moved faster than I had ever moved and lunged my stake into his ribs then to his heart. I stabbed it in further as I wanted him to suffer for hurting Dimitri.

_The Strigoi stood there in front of me with wide eyes. I looked into his eyes. He had dark black eyes ringed in a blood red outline. His skin was pale, very pale as all Strigoi have cold, pale skin. His hair was night black but had ruffled in the fight. He was tall but not very muscly. He had been an early Strigoi in my eyes but Dimitri had seemed scared for my safety as if he was ancient and powerful. Then, his body_ _collapsed falling back giving me sight of Dimitri. I ran over to him grabbing my stake on the way. _

I shut my eyes tight and pushed the images of him lying there in front of me out of my head and focused on Lissa instead. The other half of me. In fact, she is my whole now even though my heart aches for Dimitri. He is over now. That part of my life is over now.

Thanks for reading! The next chapter will be uploaded soon! :]


	2. Chapter 2

OK so since ive already wrote practically the whole thing (small...like 8 chaps) here's chapter 2!

Chapter 2

I was going to slip into Lissa's mind, but I knew she would be asleep. I should be asleep. But how could I sleep…Dimitri is gone and there's nothing I can do about it. Except keep on living, that is what he would have wanted me to do, right?

As heart broken as I am, I still managed to fall into a dreamless sleep. No Adrian. No Dimitri. No anything. That is, until I was woken up by something hitting into the wall in the room left of me. I got straight up and sprinted into the girl's dorm to see Jesse and Ralf had pushed her into the wall. Her head was down and she had bruises on her legs and arms.

When they all saw me, they exchanged glances and I threw myself on Jesse, full on knowing he was the main cause of this. It was easy to pin him to the ground and just as easy to punch him in his not so pretty face. It was hard to believe I once found him attractive. I gave him three punches then got up and kicked Ralf sending him into the wall opposite the girl.

By this time, I had an audience. No one had run to the girl, as no one knew her. I walked over to her and noticed she was a Moroi. That was why she wasn't fighting back. She didn't know how to. She looked up at me and I noticed a cut on her cheek. "Rose!" My name was shouted as Alberta ran into the room and over to me. "What happened here!?!" She demanded.

I looked at the Moroi. "Ellie, what are you doing in a Dhampir room?" She asked her oblivious to her physical health. "I…I came to check on Courtney" _So this is Courtney's room. _I thought to myself. "I don't know, I just felt like something was wrong and when I got here…she wasn't here…they were." She explained. "Then they threw me into the wall and started kicking me. Then Rose ran in and saved me." Huh, she said I saved her. No one has said _that_ about me. Well...besides Lissa.

And just like that, Lissa was in here standing next to me. "Are you OK?" Her green eyes looked into me as if she already knew the answer. "Yeah." I replied with a small half smile I rarely wore. In fact after most of my fights, I normally gave my huge I'm-awesome grin. I felt that that was too much for this situation though. "Rose, thank you for protecting me." The Moroi I guessed was Ellie looked up to me in gratitude.

She looked young and pale and very pretty, even in her state. Her long brown hair was curled almost perfectly and her make-up, well it was so light and natural it gave her a more angelic smile as she looked into my eyes. She then looked down to my hands, which were in pain from punching Jesse. I think Ralf could have had more, but I had to make sure the Moroi was OK first. After all I am taught _they come first._

"Rose, as the head of guardians at St. Vladimir's Academy I am proud you saved the Moroi girl, but fights between students are strictly forbidden. Especially between a Moroi and Dhampir. But, you did what you had to do to save the girl." Alberta started rambling about I should have just ran to the Moroi instead of beating up the guys. So I tuned out of this lecture which was pretty easy.

"Is the girl OK?" I completely interrupted Alberta's speech and didn't really care. "Yes, she is in the med clinic resting up. She spoke of you as if she owes you her life." Alberta kept going on.

I had gotten out about 5 minutes later and met up with Lissa as it was just before school started. "I helped Ellie go to the med clinic. She said she wanted to see you and thank you properly. She really is thankful you saved her. She said she thought they could have killed her." With every word, Lissa looked at me proudly and I could still see the excitement in her beautiful green eyes.

"Well then lets run down there now." I said with a smile. No one had ever seemed so thankful that I was in a fight, protecting them or not. Lissa spoke to Dr. Olendzki and got us in to Ellie's room. As we walked in, the girls smile increased tremendously. "Hey." I said as I gave her a smile. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm great thanks to you! You really saved me. You're going to be a great guardian when you graduate, Lissa's very lucky to be having you as her guardian." I looked at Lissa and saw her green eyes smile as she gave a silent laugh. There was a knock on the door before it opened and Dr. Olendzki walked in. "Girls, you have to go for now. Visiting times are over for non-family members." She said escorting us out of the room.

"She really is a nice girl. Her dorm is a few down from mine." Lissa kept going on about this morning. And as we walked out of the med clinic, I started getting the constant stares and whispers about this morning. Clearly, word had gotten out already about what had happened.

Jesse and Ralf were nowhere to be seen. Probably having some sort of discipline detention thing going on right now. Wonder what Alberta had to say to them… "I've got to go to my first class. I'll see you at lunch!" Lissa ran off into the distance and I realised I should find Christian to start the field experience. Culinary Science! I have to be there. Jesse and Ralf's class. Christian's class. Great. A class with two guys I just beat up while being on guardian duty to Christian.

Why'd he have to choose this class of all classes? Better yet, why'd _they _choose this class? I walked in and saw I was just on time for their class. There are a few other guardians in here so I wonder if they already focused on a plan I wasn't aware of. Hmm…better find out.

"You're covering the same part as usual. The door near _Christian_." The other guardian-to-be practically growled his name. "_Don't _talk about Christian like that. Better yet, just don't talk about him at all." I hissed back at him with a death stare that worked because he automatically tensed up and took his position. "That's what I thought." I whispered to myself in anger. I might not like Christian that much, but he is my assignment and without him, I fail. And as much I hate to admit it, he is good for Lissa.

So I took my position and guarded him and the class. No attacks in this class and also no Jesse and Ralf. That made me mentally smile while keeping a fierce and dangerous expression on my face. In fact, the entire day felt exactly the same as it normally did. And also as usual, I had no fights.

Thanks for reding! Review ur opinion, nice or not i wanna knwo what u think! :]


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I woke up the instant i heard an alarm screaching through my ears and well thw whole school. I had heard this alarm before. The whole school did practices all the time for this alarm. The Strigoi alarm. Most of the Moroi were sent up to one of the highest level floors with their guardians-to-be like what we did in the practice drills. Of course, I was the one running down stairs instead of up. I grabbed Stan's arm as he ran by me, but he easily threw me off and ordered me to go back inside. "No." I refused to go back inside. "I can help and you know I can." I said trying to copy my mother's matter-of-factly tone.

"Stupidity and stubbornness is going to kill you. Now go back inside. _Now!_" He started to yell at me in frustration. I turned back around and headed for the door and Stan started to turn away as I felt my nausea alarm rise. A Strigoi was close. I turned around and called Stan as I saw the Strigoi and jumped in on her frightning her a little.

She was young, most likely a new strigoi. In fact, she looked about a year or so older than me. She had the normal Strigoi pale skin, brown eyes with the blood red ringed outline. She had long brown hair that swirled in the night breeze. Her tall, slim posture was fierce and strong standing in the moon light.

My stake was already out and in my hand as I ran at her. Stan was right behind me and helped me pin her to the ground, which was quite easy. He had a strong grip on her as I pressed my stake through her ribs and to her heart. She cried out in pain as I dug it in further. Her eyes stared at me for 2 seconds before her entire body froze and became lifeless. At that point, I was amzed that Stan had let me Stake her.

"GO!" Stan yelled at me again. I ran inside and up to Christian and the others. Lissa's emotions distracted me as they were going wild and so I slipped into her mind for just a second. One second couldn't be that bad, could it?

"Let me go!" Lissa shouted at Strigoi I didn't recognise. "Our names will be famous for finishing the Dragomir family off." One of them said as the rest agreed. She was being kidnapped and I wasn't theer to help her.

That was all I needed to go back into my head and run out to find her. I started running to her dorm room with the nausea feeling getting heavier and heavier with each step I took. One jumped out at me from my left. He got me by surprise, which isn't good. He tackled me to the ground but I threw him off me pretty easily.

I didn't take notice on who this Strigoi was or any of his features, all I took notice of was that he was a Strigoi and needed to be killed. As he flew off me, we both gained our balance and I threw all of my weight into one kick that sent him to the ground. He stood up within a second and flew at me. He punched my face, making me stagger back a few steps.

Stan was gone so I had no back up. The fight went on for a few minutes before I managed to stake him too. Not knowing if he was entirely dead and hoping that if he wasn't, he would be suffering, I ran off to Lissa's dorm anyway. By the time I got there, she was gone. So were the Strigoi. "I'm too late." I met up with one of the other Dhampir's on the floor and she said a few other moroi were taken hostage as well.

I ran back out and tried to get into her head, but couldn't. This was strange for me. In fact, this was not normal for me not to be able to go into Lissa's mind. I tried again, but no luck. I realised that Eddie was with her. Was this his version of revenge? I took his best friend so now he will take mine? No he couldn't, he wouldn't. Eddie told me over and over it wasn't my fault, that it was the Strigoi not me and that i could have done nothing. No one could have saved him.

I constantly tried to use my bond with Lissa to find her, and eventually, I had circled the entire school. All the Strigoi were gone and they took Lissa with them. Their goal was to end the Dragomir family off. They wanted to be well known Strigoi, but they forgot one important part: letting _us_ know who they are. But instead, the Strigoi community will know who they are. I guess ending royal families is a big threat so that we fear them or something.

Maybe that was what they wanted? To rule all Strigoi. That definitely made sense in my head. I decided to go back to Lissa's room as maybe I could connect to her there or find something, anything that would get me one step closer to finding and saving her. Like I did when Victor Dashkov kidnapped her. I'd _felt _where to go. Maybe the same thing will happen. But it would be different this time. Dimitri wouldn't be with me to find her. He wouldn't lend me the support i needed.

When I walked in, I saw a note. I never thought Strigoi would leave notes…but as I picked it up, I realised it wasn't just any Strigoi. It was Dimitri. But he's dead. Isn't he?

_Rose,_

_I know you want to find her. I know you will do everything you can. But you can't get into her head to find her that will be a problem for you. Not for me. I will finish off the Dragomir family once and for all. It will be impossible for you to save her this time. _

OK so thats the end of chapter 3! Rose just found out the man she loved is a Strigoi who kidnapped her best friend and bondmate. Review ur opinion, good or bad, i wanna know! Thanks 4 reading! :]


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 5

_She _was here. Getting closer, than further away. Constantly, that was the feeling through our bond. And her constant fear for herself and the other captured Moroi was a strong feeling inside her. I wanted to escape into her head, but physically couldn't. And I wasn't in the best position to either.

I had to keep my focus on killing Strigoi and saving Lissa. And the other Moroi. 1 down, 5 to go. Eddie was safe with us _if _he stayed behind us and didn't fight. I thought the other guardians like Alberta would have made me watch him to make sure he stayed safe, but no one said a word about anyone doing that. Instead, we all continued following the Strigoi.

He led us deeper and deeper into the cave and occasionally my nausea feeling would rise, then fall. Closer to the Strigoi then his pace would fasten, and we'd be more behind than before. Strigoi would take fast turns and change direction to try to confuse who ever was following them. But for Dhampir's to be following Strigoi, was rare.

Strigoi almost never ran from a fight. Unless the Strigoi knew he or she had absolutely no chance of winning the fight, it would flee then and there. With the amount of guardians here, he had no chance on us. And the best part was, he knew that. The bad part was, he most likely would tell the other Strigoi and there would be a mini war in this cave tonight. We all knew that would happen soon. We had to be ready. Stake and all. Well…we only have a stake each, so we need to keep it with us at all times and never let it go.

The feeling between the bond I share with Lissa is getting stringer and stronger giving me hope that she is near and we will save her. No matter what. She is coming home tonight or maybe this morning since I have no idea what the time is.

It looked like we had been running in circles all night, but it felt like we were running in a constant straight line. We were all getting closer and closer to saving everyone and Lissa. And getting closer to really see Dimitri as a Strigoi. I don't think about it much, but when I do, I always get teary eyes. I hadn't quite wanted to think about it either.

But soon, I will see _him_. Wether I want to or not. Well, I could, but the only way not to see him was to turn back now and flee from this whole situation. And I couldn't do that. Not to the guardians, the captured Moroi and Lissa. I could never do that to Lissa.

She needs me to save her. I need her to stay true to myself. There is no way in hell I am letting a bunch of Strigoi ruin my life. I'm not letting them take Lissa. Or any other Moroi. But they might have done that already to the other Moroi. But I do guess that they'd leave Lissa to last. Make her watch every feed. Every murder. Every turn even.

Maybe they have intensions of turning her. Making her join them. By choice or be turned by one of them. But to them, she'd lose her soul with both options. But to them, awakening is a very good thing. That it wasn't considered the end of life, it was considered the new beginning.

But to me, and other Dhampir's, it is considered kinda half dead. The loss of the soul. The loss of all humanity. The loss of all life. Dhampir's had said for years that if they were turned, they wanted to be hunted down and be killed. That was what Dimitri had said when we were together one night.

I had agreed with him. And soon his wish of being killed after turning will come true for him. I don't know if it will be me killing him or one of the other guardians, but he is not walking out of this alive, if that is even what he is.

We should be very close to the centre where everyone is being held captive. This experience so far kept on bringing back memories of when Dimitri and I were together. In training, the night in the cabin and other times when we found ourselves together and in love.

The memories of when our lips met and when our hands touched. The memories of him wrapping my hair around his finger. He always loved my long hair out so he could touch it. The way he called me _Roza_. These memories and a lot of other ones were racing through my head all at the same time. It was too much to handle right now.

And Lissa is the only one who knows. Unless she told Christian. And well Adrian knows about Dimitri and me as well…but he'd caught us in the act. All of those moments meant so much to me and now, well soon, he will be gone. They will just be memories that will fade.

The only person that might understand is Lissa. I could never tell anyone else. Adrian, I could never talk to him about Dimitri. He'd never understand. Just like my mum. She'd never understand. She'd probably hate me for falling in love with my mentor. This proves once more, that Lissa is the only person I can truly trust. Without her, I would be a mess. An even bigger mess that what I am now.

I need to focus on what is going on. The cave. The Strigoi. Lissa. Dimitri. This will be painful. I just know it. Either way, I will lose someone I love tonight. But that one person has to be Dimitri. I wont let him take Lissa with him. This may be the night I sacrifice myself for her more than ever.

The nausea picked up a little so we are getting closer. Of course, everyone would have known we were closer, but not _this _close. This strong nausea always meant Strigoi were close. Very close. Maybe he had stopped running? Maybe he ran into a dead end. I silently laughed at my little joke as guardian gave me disgraced looks.

I didn't bother to say anything except "We're close. Really close." Albert eyed me for a little bit than stopped making everyone else stop as well. The Strigoi was dead. Lying there in front of us. Dead. Not staked, not burned, not anything. Just dead. Alberta ordered for Stan to go check it out. To make sure it was actually dead. Not just playing dead.

He slowly walked up to it, which in my head was a mistake. If you are not sure if it is dead, you should rush in and stake it while you have the opportunity. If the Strigoi was alive, it could jump up at you and snap your neck just like that. If it caught the guardian off guard.

But it didn't move. Not even breathe. It just continued lying there. He staked it anyway. Just to make sure. But it still didn't move so it clearly was-

I screamed out in pain and fell to the cold ground not having a clue on what my body was doing or what had caused my scream of pain.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

_She _was here. Getting closer, than further away. Constantly, that was the feeling through our bond. And her constant fear for herself and the other captured Moroi was a strong feeling inside her. I wanted to escape into her head, but physically couldn't. And I wasn't in the best position to either.

I had to keep my focus on killing Strigoi and saving Lissa. And the other Moroi. 1 down, 5 to go. Eddie was safe with us _if _he stayed behind us and didn't fight. I thought the other guardians like Alberta would have made me watch him to make sure he stayed safe, but no one said a word about anyone doing that. Instead, we all continued following the Strigoi.

He led us deeper and deeper into the cave and occasionally my nausea feeling would rise, then fall. Closer to the Strigoi then his pace would fasten, and we'd be more behind than before. Strigoi would take fast turns and change direction to try to confuse who ever was following them. But for Dhampir's to be following Strigoi, was rare.

Strigoi almost never ran from a fight. Unless the Strigoi knew he or she had absolutely no chance of winning the fight, it would flee then and there. With the amount of guardians here, he had no chance on us. And the best part was, he knew that. The bad part was, he most likely would tell the other Strigoi and there would be a mini war in this cave tonight. We all knew that would happen soon. We had to be ready. Stake and all. Well…we only have a stake each, so we need to keep it with us at all times and never let it go.

The feeling between the bond I share with Lissa is getting stringer and stronger giving me hope that she is near and we will save her. No matter what. She is coming home tonight or maybe this morning since I have no idea what the time is.

It looked like we had been running in circles all night, but it felt like we were running in a constant straight line. We were all getting closer and closer to saving everyone and Lissa. And getting closer to really see Dimitri as a Strigoi. I don't think about it much, but when I do, I always get teary eyes. I hadn't quite wanted to think about it either.

But soon, I will see _him_. Wether I want to or not. Well, I could, but the only way not to see him was to turn back now and flee from this whole situation. And I couldn't do that. Not to the guardians, the captured Moroi and Lissa. I could never do that to Lissa.

She needs me to save her. I need her to stay true to myself. There is no way in hell I am letting a bunch of Strigoi ruin my life. I'm not letting them take Lissa. Or any other Moroi. But they might have done that already to the other Moroi. But I do guess that they'd leave Lissa to last. Make her watch every feed. Every murder. Every turn even.

Maybe they have intensions of turning her. Making her join them. By choice or be turned by one of them. But to them, she'd lose her soul with both options. But to them, awakening is a very good thing. That it wasn't considered the end of life, it was considered the new beginning.

But to me, and other Dhampir's, it is considered kinda half dead. The loss of the soul. The loss of all humanity. The loss of all life. Dhampir's had said for years that if they were turned, they wanted to be hunted down and be killed. That was what Dimitri had said when we were together one night.

I had agreed with him. And soon his wish of being killed after turning will come true for him. I don't know if it will be me killing him or one of the other guardians, but he is not walking out of this alive, if that is even what he is.

We should be very close to the centre where everyone is being held captive. This experience so far kept on bringing back memories of when Dimitri and I were together. In training, the night in the cabin and other times when we found ourselves together and in love.

The memories of when our lips met and when our hands touched. The memories of him wrapping my hair around his finger. He always loved my long hair out so he could touch it. The way he called me _Roza_. These memories and a lot of other ones were racing through my head all at the same time. It was too much to handle right now.

And Lissa is the only one who knows. Unless she told Christian. And well Adrian knows about Dimitri and me as well…but he'd caught us in the act. All of those moments meant so much to me and now, well soon, he will be gone. They will just be memories that will fade.

The only person that might understand is Lissa. I could never tell anyone else. Adrian, I could never talk to him about Dimitri. He'd never understand. Just like my mum. She'd never understand. She'd probably hate me for falling in love with my mentor. This proves once more, that Lissa is the only person I can truly trust. Without her, I would be a mess. An even bigger mess that what I am now.

I need to focus on what is going on. The cave. The Strigoi. Lissa. Dimitri. This will be painful. I just know it. Either way, I will lose someone I love tonight. But that one person has to be Dimitri. I wont let him take Lissa with him. This may be the night I sacrifice myself for her more than ever.

The nausea picked up a little so we are getting closer. Of course, everyone would have known we were closer, but not _this _close. This strong nausea always meant Strigoi were close. Very close. Maybe he had stopped running? Maybe he ran into a dead end. I silently laughed at my little joke as guardian gave me disgraced looks.

I didn't bother to say anything except "We're close. Really close." Albert eyed me for a little bit than stopped making everyone else stop as well. The Strigoi was dead. Lying there in front of us. Dead. Not staked, not burned, not anything. Just dead. Alberta ordered for Stan to go check it out. To make sure it was actually dead. Not just playing dead.

He slowly walked up to it, which in my head was a mistake. If you are not sure if it is dead, you should rush in and stake it while you have the opportunity. If the Strigoi was alive, it could jump up at you and snap your neck just like that. If it caught the guardian off guard.

But it didn't move. Not even breathe. It just continued lying there. He staked it anyway. Just to make sure. But it still didn't move so it clearly was-

I screamed out in pain and fell to the cold ground not having a clue on what my body was doing or what had caused my scream of pain.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Everything in my world right now froze. First in pain, then pleasure? Then pain again. Then my vision went black. All of it. I felt someone's hands going to try and lift my head up. I heard faint voices calling to me.

I heard Eddie's voice. Repeatedly calling my name and asking if I could hear him. I couldn't move, I couldn't talk, I couldn't do anything. I just lay there, just like the Strigoi. What was going on? Do I have some weird disease thing?

I opened my eyes but all I saw was blur. Everything was so blurry that I couldn't tell what was what. Well for a minute. Then things got clearer and Eddie was there in front of me. Holding me up. Why didn't they let my lie there? Why is Eddie holding me up? Is it better for a concussion or something?

"Rose, what happened?" I heard Eddie's concerned voice. "I…I don't know." I looked up into his eyes. There was another guardian alone with us the others had left. How long was I down for? It felt like 2 minutes to me, but obviously it was longer. The Strigoi nausea was gone.

"How long was I out for?" I asked them. "A while…" Eddie replied after a minute. "How long?" I asked again. "About an hour." He said. "An hour!" I almost screamed at him in disbelief. He nodded along with the guardian. I had seen him around sometimes on campus, but didn't know his name.

"Did the other guardians find the captured Moroi yet?" I asked Eddie and the guardian. "No. They've barely found anyone. The killed a few Strigoi, but nothing major." The guardian said in a deep, hard voice.

I sighed wishing that they had found Lissa, or anyone I guess. They all need to be found, but to me, Lissa needs to be found _now_. The bond wasn't telling me much, actually it was telling me nothing. I tried again to slip into her mind, but no luck. I sighed again wishing I knew what was blocking the bond.

Eddie clearly realised something was up with me and asked "OK Rose, what's wrong?" He didn't seem annoyed but something upset me about what he said. "The bond, I can't get into Lissa's head. And I don't know why. And I can't feel her there that much either. Maybe they have a sp- Never mind." I was so close to bringing out spirit user's once again.

"Rose…tell us." Eddie reminded me of Mason when he said that. "You sounded like Mason." I sighed once again trying to get him sidetracked from the problem with the bond onto Mason. "What do you mean I sound like Mason?" He asked, clearly sidetracked. My plan had worked.

"Well, the way your concerned and Mason says that all the time when he knows something's wrong and I wont tell him. You two were so close you started talking the same." I gave him a half smile still missing Mason. Clearly by his expression, he misses him just as much as I do.

"Is that good that I remind you of Mason?" His words struck me by surprise. "Yeah. I think so. It's a good ay to remember the good in him. Which was all of him when you think about it. He never did anything bad or anything that would hurt someone. Besides when he kicks your ass in class." We both gave a small laugh at my words then sat together in silence.

"What do you think is going on with the bond?" He eventually asked. "I don't know. But I'll figure it out soon enough. When they bring Lissa back." I sounded more confident than what I was. I don't know if we'd ever figure out what is going on in our bond. Unless it has to do with out locations or health or something like that. Which I hope it does.

"Should we go after them? To find them and help them?" I asked both of them. All I wanted to do was go out and find Lissa and figure out what is going on. "No. I had strict instructions from Alberta to keep you here." The Guardian spoke again. "Umm…Who exactly are you…?" I asked slowly. He gave a small laugh than said his name. Guardian Mike Simon.

"Oh that's right!" I said with a small smile. "We met briefly in the med clinic that one time." He looked down at me with a small smile as well. "Umm…yeah I'm there all the time…" I looked from him, to Eddie, to the ground I was sitting on. "Do you help out there in your spare time?" He asked with curiosity.

"Not exactly…It's more like they help me all the time…" I spoke still looking at the ground feeling embarrassed. He laughed again before speaking again. "I never would have pictured you of all people to get hurt all the time." I swear he wondered off into a little chain of thoughts.

"Neither would I." I whispered to myself. "I'm getting bored. How much trouble will you be in if I took off to help them?" I looked up at him again and he had a small smile. He wasn't like Dimitri that much. He almost always had a smile on his face and he laughed a lot more than Dimitri. But that doesn't mean he is happier than Dimitri.

"A lot. It was Alberta who ordered me to keep you and him here until they got back here with the Moroi." Well…without me out there to tell them where to go now they might take ages. "If they come back." I said in a sarcastic voice that he clearly didn't get. His smile faded into a darker more serious look. "They _will _come back. With all the captured Moroi alive."

"He's getting annoyed with me." I joked to Eddie. He gave out a smile and the guardian eyed us off. I got up and within 2 seconds he was in front of me with a solid grip on my arm. "Joke time." I whispered. "What?" He asked clearly hearing something from me. Ignoring him, I made a small not-so-funny joke. "Clingy much. If you want to touch me so badly, just say so." Eddie and I laughed and he let go of me.

That plan was a success. Well, I don't know if it was a plan, but whatever it was, it worked. I started pacing around in the cave occasionally mumbling to myself. Eddie and Mike were in some deep conversation about the queen which I could have had my daily bitch session in, but decided not to.

So I got bored and sat back down next to Eddie just as he brought up a little thing I hated _Queen _Tatiana for. "She has plans to have Lissa and her guardians, which will be Rose and someone else, to move in and live at the court after graduation." And with that said, I lied down, closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Rose." Eddie was pulling my arm trying to wake me. "We have to go." He continued pulling my arm. About a minute past by with him trying to get me up until the nausea feeling rushed through me and got me up in a defensive stance throwing Eddie off me. "Rose?" He asked. I grabbed my stake out just in time as did he when he noticed what I was doing.

We were both ready to jump into the fight together but before we could, guardian Simon, or Mike, jumped into it before we did, catching the Strigoi off guard as it was focused on me and Eddie and not Mike.

He threw the Strigoi back a few steps giving him about 2 seconds to stake him, in which he used very well and killed the Strigoi right then and there. "Nice kill." Eddie said in an amazed voice. "Quick kill. It's never nice to kill Eddie." I corrected him. Mike nodded at Eddie and me and we decided to go just a little deeper into the cave.

We fought off 2 other Strigoi, or Mike fought off 2 other Strigoi. He didn't let us in on the fighting once. And I love to fight. And I'm good at it too. And he should know that. And yet, I think he does. "Why don't you let us fight?" I asked after a while of constant walking.

"Because, if you think about it, it's my job to keep you alive, so if I fight all the ones at the start, when I die, you two will still have the power and energy to fight off other Strigoi and get out of here alive." I cannot believe I hadn't thought about that. "Hey Mike, thanks." Eddie said with a smile.

The guardian nodded our way but instead of nausea, I felt…nothing. Again with the nothing. It was tarting to irritate me. But I have to deal with it. I gave him a confused look and he just stared out into nothing for about 2 minutes before shrugging and saying, "Never mind."

Eddie and I shared glances before shrugging it off as well. "What was-" The guardian had cut my words off with a shut-up hand motion. OK. Nothing weird about this guy. I quickly but silently walked over to where Eddie was standing and whispered, "Do you have any clue what's going on?"

He shook his head once and we both looked at Mike. I was going to walk over to him but decided not to. I also wanted to sit down, but chose not to just in case. We were all silent and didn't move once for 5 minutes, literally. I was counting.

I decided that since nothing had happened for a while, that it would fine if I sat down. That if there were Strigoi around, my nausea would kick in and I'd be standing in my guardian stance with my stake out ready to fight. Mike was whispering into some weird small microphone thingy that would allow him to communicate to the other guardians.

He walked over to us with the normal guardian expression that a lot of guardians at the school had. "They found no Moroi. Alberta thinks they took them with them for turning or later snacks." I was frozen. I looked up into his eyes and saw sorrow in them. Sorrow that guardians wore all the time that you anyone could easily pick it up.

They both took in my silence, but Eddie was first to react. He put his arm around me and pulled me into him. My head lay on his shoulder, my eyes closing and hiding back tears. The guardian was moving, I could hear and feel his foot steps coming closer to us. "Alberta says we are free to go. We'll wait for them outside the cave. In the morning light."

With that said, Eddie and the guardian pulled me up, even though I could have gotten up by myself. I pulled away from Eddie and Mike and walked off to the right of the cave alone and with my head down. I pushed back a few tears and let some out at the same time.

I didn't want them to see my pain, so I quickly brushed away my tears even though they would have known what I was doing as both their sets of eyes were on me. I stopped walking for half a second and both of them were at my side once again. "I'm OK." I lied. They knew I was lying. Losing your best friend. The person you are bonded to. Well, they don't understand the bond part, but I knew Eddie understood most of my pain.

"Rose, it's OK to be upset. I was upset for days when we lost Mason." Eddie was trying to make me feel better so I gave him my bets fake smile. Then the Mike spoke again. "We have to keep going. They aren't positive that they killed all the Strigoi they passed, they could have missed one or two." We all began walking down the same cave route we came in from.

At one point, I thought I saw the end of the cave, but it was a small flame. "Eddie…what's that? Over there?" I pointed to the flame and they both shrugged. "Fire, I guess." Eddie stated the obvious. "Well yeah. But how would the cave have a small fire? Did we pass it on our way in?"

We all glared at each other than to the small flame. Eddie ran up to it and easily blew it out. "Now it's not a problem." He joked. I gave him a half smile, trying to make it a bigger one to ensure him that I was OK and that I was strong. But it didn't work. The instant I smiled, it was gone the next. And in replacement, nausea.

"Eddie!" I called. They both ran out to me and I grabbed my stake out, they both followed my lead to the Strigoi. As I walked towards it, the nausea got stronger and stronger. We were lead to a small 3-way turn off. I took a step to the right turn off then to the middle one, than to the one on the far left.

I stared out for 2 seconds, then they asked me what route. "All of them." I said and they both were shocked. "There is a Strigoi in all of them." I said again. "What one is strongest?" Eddie asked me, knowing about my nausea thing. I took more steps into them, and the far left was just a bit stronger, so there might have been 2 in there. "This one." We all walked in and were surprised to see the Strigoi fighting each other.

IT was kinda refreshing that they were fighting each other instead of us. We slowly walked back out deciding they will eventually kill each other and didn't need out help, yet. We then chose the middle route, walking straight a head of us. The Strigoi was waiting for us, clearly he knew we were coming. He gave us an evil smile then Mike jumped in on the fight.

The Strigoi looked old, which meant he was an ancient and powerful Strigoi. Eddie realised it as well as we both found each other jumping in on the fight. He gave a long, strong fight, but we eventually took him out…well Eddie staked him while Mike and I were beating him up.

We walked back out slowly, just in case the other Strigoi heard and was waiting for us out there. But it wasn't there. So we nodded over to the last route. When we first saw the Strigoi, it reminded me of Lissa. She had long golden blonde curly hair. Her figure stated she was a new Strigoi. Also her reflexes showed that as well.

She turned around Eddie and I froze. So did the Strigoi. Or should I say Lissa, the newly turned Strigoi.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

_First Lesson, Don't Hesitate…_Dimitri's words rushed through me. _Don't Hesitate._ But this was Lissa. I couldn't kill her. I love her. But I love Dimitri and I wanted to kill him now that he was Strigoi. But that was because that's what he wanted. Lissa and I had never talked about turning.

Mike had tackled her and was so close to staking her. It was then I realised I was fighting off Mike. He was so confused. Eddie was tyring to get me off Mike and eventually succeeded. "Rose…" Her words were cold, different. _No one is the same after turning Rose. _His voice was killing me. Trying to make me kill my best friend. The person I am supposed to be protecting.

Eddie was holding me back from Mike and since he realised Lissa wasn't attacking us, and that clearly, we knew each other, he backed off her. Than Eddie let me go once I swore not to touch Mike. He had hurt Lissa because she was already bruising. But her fragile skin always bruised easily.

"Let the Strigoi go." Eddie told Mike to make sure he wouldn't touch Lissa again. "I know her." He finally realised. "Lissa Dragomir. The Dragomir Princess. My best friend. The Mor-Strigoi I am bonded to." He finally got it. Lissa was running away at this point. I wanted to run after her, to make sure she was OK.

But even I knew I couldn't do that. Eddie and Mike would stop me anyway. I was getting nothing from the bond either. I tried to slip into her mind, but I couldn't. The I realised what was going on.

When I fell to the floor in pain, she was turned. When she was turned, she lost her spirit ability and everything that went with it. The super-compulsion, the healing, the auras but most importantly, our bond was gone. Through one bite. I was still shadow-kissed, but without my bondmate.

I still had my nausea Strigoi alarm and the seeing ghost ability thing. They were the only things I had from the bond between Lissa and me. Well that and the memories of us. When we met, when we grew up together, the crash, the run-away, our return to the school, the whole spirit thing, the parties, her capture with Victor Dashkov, and now, when she turned.

They will all just be memories. Nothing more. Christian. He'll be heartbroken. We'll have just one more thing in common. Losing the person we love. Just like Eddie and me now have something in common. Losing our best friend.

The next thing I knew, I had blacked out. I'd slipped in and out of consciousness on our way back to campus. One of those times we were in a car, one I was being carried out somewhere and the last one was at campus. One thing that did wake me up a little more, was the constant stares I felt.

I opened my eyes and looked up at who was carrying me. Mike's eyes looked down at me when he felt my head move against his chest. I saw worry in his eyes and as much as I wanted to say I was OK, I just couldn't. My eyes shut again without my hesitation, and the next time I woke up, I was in the med clinic.

Dr. Olendzki was standing in front of me babbling about what had happened to me to someone. I didn't really take much notice until I realised who it was. Christian. I coughed twice and they both looked at me. Christian had relief that I was awake, which came to me as a surprise, but then again, he was here waiting for me to wake up.

"Can we have a minute?" He interrupter her and she nodded and walked out of the room. "Hey," Even in his voice you could hear relief. "Hey." I replied in a crackly voice. "You were crying when you came in. What happened?" I was crying? Damn. I hope to god that not many people saw me crying. The bigger issue is that he wasn't told what happened to Lissa and I didn't want to be the one who tells him. So I'm going to try to change the subject.

"When did I get back?" I asked him ignoring his question. "About an hour ago." He looked at the lock and nodded again. "How long have you been here for?" I asked again looking at the clock. "Since you got in." I gave him a thankful smile. It was hard to smile. Very hard. He nodded in response. What was with people and nodding?

"So, do you want to talk about it?" He obviously knew something was wrong since I came in crying. I wanted so badly to say no, but I had to tell him Lissa got turned. He took in my silence and asked me one more question. "Where's Lissa? I didn't see her come in with you."

I couldn't look at him. So I looked at my feet instead. My eyes began to get teary before I let them fall down my cheek. I could feel his gaze getting stronger and more worried and confused. "What happened to Lissa?" He sounded demanding. "Ask someone else." I said through more tears. "No Rose, you tell me. I'm asking you." He demanded again.

I still didn't look at him. "And I said ask someone else." I said also starting to get angry at him. I was fighting back more tears as he left without a word. I was left alone in the med clinic. I cried myself to sleep, hoping no one was watching me.

Just like I expected, Adrian was in my dream. "I'm so sorry Rose." His hands were cupping my face. We were in his grandmother's garden again. We were sitting on the chairs near a flowerbed. "I wish I could say I understand your pain, but I don't. And I know that's probably the last thing you want to hear, but it's the truth." Silence was all around us in the dream. He pulled me closer to him, resting my head on his chest, he held me in the dream until I woke up.

He was there, in font of me. Waiting for me to wake up. "Hey Little Dhampir." He placed his hand over mine. "Hey." I sighed. "You so strong Rose. I'd never survive losing the two people I love." I'm not strong. I broke down in the cave. I could have been attacked. In fact I attacked Mike. The guardian who was protecting us.

"No I'm not." I managed to say clearly. He gave me a smile before disagreeing with me. "You're the strongest person I know Rose. You lost Dimitri _and _Lissa. Your boyfriend and best friend." He kept on telling me how strong I was and how proud of me he was.

I still didn't want to speak any more so I listened to his stories all night. He'd bought me food and drinks all day. He had actually bought me good food. Not the standard med clinic food.

Dr. Olendzki walked in and told me I was free to go. I don't exactly know why I was kept here all day, maybe because I just lost my best friend in a Strigoi cave attack. Maybe because I attacked Guardian Simon.

"Do you want to stay with me tonight? They said you don't have to do the field experience tomorrow." I gave a small nod knowing the last thing I wanted was to be alone. I normally loved to be alone when losing someone, like when I lost Dimitri. All I had wanted then was to be alone. But now, losing Lissa, it was the last thing I wanted to do.

We walked back to guest housing and I was surprised the guards let me stay the night. I guess they heard about what happened. Bu the looks of all the students, they had as well. "Everyone knows, right?" I looked up into his green eyes. The same green eyes that Lissa had. I had to look away and yet I couldn't. It made me realise, that he had lost Lissa as well.

He had lost his 'cousin', that was what they always called each other. And he had lost the only other spirit user he knew. Without her, he had a lot of work a head of him spirit wise. And now, him and Eddie are my closest friends. It was a hard topic to accept, but I knew the sooner I accept it, the easier life will get. The last thing I remember is Adrian saying to me was that this is the new beginning.


End file.
